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Worship Recap from St. Simons Community Church

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:08:25 +0000

Welcome to the weekly recap from my perspective as the Worship Pastor at St. Simons Community Church. As always, I’m posting this recap along with other worship leaders as part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com. Check out other setlists and recaps from churches worldwide.

It was another powerful morning of worship, yet not without some technical difficulties. For this service, we changed the flow of the service order so that all of our music was in the beginning of the service. I had several comments about how nice it was to have a solid block of music, as opposed to breaking it up throughout the service.

Everything went well with the exception of some issues we had with our electric guitarist’s gear. For some reason, it kept going in and out, in and out. We’d have the levels set appropriately in the mix and then it would just drop out – sometimes, completely. It frustrated everyone a bit and gave the sound guys a fit. Some tweaking between services happened and I believe they resolved the issues. It’s one of those things that works fine, then stops. I suppose the key in these situations is trying to be patient and gracious. Neither of those are great traits for me. In cases like these, you can bet that your sound guys are equally frustrated. Blaming them or constantly pointing out the issue probably doesn’t help. In this case, our guys were gracious and professional and worked with the guitarist to get the issue resolved. Still, in reflecting back on the morning, I didn’t feel that I was a strong enough leader in comforting the team that they were on top of it.

We kicked off a new series called “FAQ” which is based on apologetics. The sermon wasn’t the type of message to invoke a ministry response so we opted to bring all the music to the first part of the service, and end with announcements. The flow seemed to work perfectly for that morning.

The Music

Walk In: “Praise the Name of Jesus” by Ken Mullis
(this is a bluesy, “Alman Bros” type song that is complete BLAST to play. A good friend of mine wrote this and I had the pleasure of producing the live recording of the song. Below is a copy of the song (from the live recording with Ken Mullis, not from our service). Feel free to grab this tune and try it out as a special or song of praise in your services. We had harmonica and electric guitar featured on this … I just wanted to grab my wife and do some swing dancing in church!
Praise the Name of Jesus by highestpraise

More Music:

“Glory to God Forever” – Steve Fee
“You Have Made Me Glad”
“Revelation Song”
“Holy, Holy, Holy” (Hymn)

We closed out the service after the dismissal with “Praise the Name of Jesus” again … it’s fun to see so many people hang out and listen to the music. It’s definitely meant to glorify God but we can’t help having fun playing it!

Praise Him In The Dance

Fred McKinnon — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:12:14 +0000

When you say “praise Him in the dance” and think of incorporating “dance” as an act of praise … what comes to mind?

How about this? 1300+ people from a church in Budapest Hungary rehearsed this dance and came together and “danced” to celebrate Easter Sunday. What’s even cooler? They are organizing the same thing for Easter 2011 … worldwide. For more info, visit www.uptofaith.com

And They Were Baptized … #sundaysetlists

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:33:45 +0000

OK, so first … what is this #sundaysetlists thing in my blog post title?

It’s called a “hash tag” … a way to tag or identify a blog or twitter post so that people can know it’s subject, keywords, or you can even search twitter based on them.

“Sunday Setlists” is an event that started right here on FredMcKinnon.Com, but has since transferred over to TheWorshipCommunity.Com – where people post a recap of their worship services each week. Be sure and check out the other posts.

So, on to my recap of our worship service at SSCC for Sunday, August 15th.

Wow. I can’t express how incredible it was. We have never conducted a baptism during our worship services in the building … they have always been special gatherings, outside, at some place with a pool. We had our first baptism service yesterday, which was a complete surprise to most of those who attend our church. The bigger surprise; however, was that we were prepared to baptize anyone who wanted to be baptized … spontaneously.

We opened up with a couple of songs:

“I Have Found” (Kim Walker)
“Mighty to Save” (Hillsong)

Then, David (our pastor) taught on salvation and baptism. It was a shorter, 25-minute sermon. Then he basically challenged people to respond. We were ready with the excuses. We had stacks of brand new shorts and T-shirts of all sizes. We had undergarments. Personal Products. Hair dryers. Combs. Photographers. Videographers. There was really no reason to NOT respond …

And respond they did. Between the two services, countless people confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord, and +/- 126 people got baptized.

Young, old.
White, black.
American, Chinese.

I’m still blown away … we played instrumental music, sang a bit, worshiped the whole time, and simply let the music “ebb and flow” with the baptisms. Makes for some tired feet … a good 1-1/2 hours into the service and still seeing people lined up all the way down the wall of the church, waiting for their turn to publicly demonstrate their faith in Christ.

And that’s a recap for our church. How about yours?

Sunday Setlists – Worship Recap from SSCC

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:16:16 +0000

Hey Everybody!

Yesterday (Sunday, August 8th) was my first time back on the stage, leading worship at SSCC, in a couple of weeks. It was great to be back. We started a new series called “Small Steps, Big Faith” and our service didn’t have a “sermon” … just a flow of worship, testimonies, and communion. Well, we did “kind of” have an impromptu sermon during our 9:00 AM service when one of the pastors lost track of time in his 5-minute “setup” … which turned into 25 minutes!

Thankfully, a little “Campfire Meeting” backstage after that service helped us workout the timing kinks and we nailed the flow in the 11:00 AM service.

Walk In Song:
“Washed by the Water” (NeedtoBreathe)

“Glorious” (Paul Baloche)
“For All You’ve Done” (Hillsongs)
“Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone” (Hillsongs)

*Testimony: I shared a faith-building testimony about prayer.
*Testimony: One of our pastors, Steve, shared a faith-building story about how God called him into ministry.

“Great is Thy Faithfulness” (Traditional Hymn Version)
*The Lord’s Prayer (corporate prayer)

Communion:
“You Gave Your Life Away” (Baloche)
“Jesus Paid it All” (Northpoint Live Version)
“Christ is Risen” (Matt Maher)

From a technical standpoint, we used a cool backing lyrics video for “Christ is Risen”, which required us to play this song to a click. The animated lyrics and backgrounds were powerful and added a nice visual dynamic to the worship experience on that song.

We wrapped up our Sunday with a big, family “Beach Night” on St. Simons Island – it was a great day celebrating with other Believers here in the area!

This recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Farewell, Captain Phil Harris (Deadliest Catch and Jesus)

Fred McKinnon — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:00:10 +0000

Wednesday, July 14 2010

Last night, millions of viewers said “farewell” to a guy named Captain Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie. Although he passed away in February 2010, the rest of us experienced his passing via the “reality TV show”, “Deadliest Catch“.

I’m not sure when I got hooked on this show … and I don’t quite understand why I will watch the same thing (cussing, smoking, throwing hooks, and pulling in crab pots) for hours upon hours. I’m intrigued by the personalities. Overwhelmed by the work. Energized by the risk. Captivated by the rewards.

Captain Phil was quite the case. Supposedly, he was the exact same kind of person “off the camera” as “on the camera” … the same guy before and after their “fame” from being on TV.

Captain Phil … he smoked like a train, cussed like a sailor (oh, wait, essentially, he was a sailor, or a fisherman, at least!) … fought with his crew, fought with his kids … yet, was clearly a compassionate, loving man. My wife and I were in tears as he loved his boys, showed them deep affection, and told them the four words that EVERY BOY WANTS TO HEAR FROM THEIR FATHERS:

“I’m Proud Of You”.

So … why this eulogy over a guy I never met? I’ll tell you – Captain Phil represents something very powerful to me. He represents the kind of guy that Jesus sought out to be His disciples.

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.19 And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:18-19, ESV, YouVersion.Com)

We hear all the stories of how Simon Peter must have been. We infer from the stories in the Bible that Peter was rough, tough .. I bet he had quite the mouth on him. I bet he could fight with the best of them, and could beat anybody in poker.

I bet when Simon Peter dropped his nets and followed Jesus … that his personality, and perhaps, even his habits, didn’t change overnight.

He wasn’t in a suit.
He wasn’t carrying His Bible in a leather case with a cross on it.
He wasn’t speaking King James.
He probably wasn’t clean shaven and polished.

He was ROUGH around the EDGES.

Jesus wanted Him. Jesus called Him. Of all the righteous, religious, uppity-fancy people walking the earth … and Jesus chose people like Simon Peter … like the tax collectors … the prostitutes … and yes, people like Captain Phil.

Did Captain Phil know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior? Well, I doubt any of us can answer that for sure. Before you fire off your comments about how a Christian would never use that language, just stop and consider what I’ve written above. Maybe you don’t smoke and cuss … but those are outward expressions of a sinful nature (and perhaps, just culture and physical addictions) … and I bet if you wrote down your less-visible “inward” sins … you’d back down …

All I can say is … I hope he did … ’cause I’d like to go fishing with him in heaven.

Farewell, Captain Phil Harris.

Worship Recap from SSCC (#sundaysetlists)

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:14:07 +0000

We enjoyed a great time of worship at SSCC yesterday. We were in Week 4 of our “Prevail” series on spiritual warfare. Pastor David taught about the “breastplate of righteousness” and challenged us in some big ways.

As far as the musical aspect of our time of worship, here’s a snapshot of what we did:

Walk-in:

“When We All Get to Heaven” – a fun arrangement I made where we open it up in the old, traditional style, acapella. Then, we rip into a funky version that is a blast to play, and after singing all 4 verses and the Chorus, we end the song with a campmeeting-style, double-time backbeat Chorus. Always gets the people excited.

Opening Song:

“No Other Name” – Todd Fields/Northpoint Live arrangement. This is always a great go-to song for a shorter, 3-minute opener that rightly brings attention to the Name of Jesus.

Middle Set:

After a short teaching (ie. 1 minute) on the word “hosanna” and what it means, we sang back-to-back “Hosanna” songs …

“Hosanna” (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown)
“Hosanna” (Hillsong)

Then, the band left the stage and I moved to the grand piano where we did an intimate, reflective arrangement of “Sanctuary” (Lord Prepare Me) with piano, vocal, and acoustic guitar.

After the sermon we closed with the old Vineyard song, “Take My Life” (aka “Holiness”) by Scott Underwood.

Loved leading this week. You can watch our services live or “on demand” at www.sscclive.com.

This recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted weekly by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Saint Lewis – Songs from the Hope Farm

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:46:15 +0000

Artist: Saint Lewis (Shannon and Cyle Lewis and friends)
Album: Songs from the Hope Farm

Hey Everybody,

It’s with great excitement that I share the much-anticipated album, “Songs from the Hope Farm” by Saint Lewis is finally available on iTunes. Shannon Lewis is the Associate Worship Leader at SSCC and I have the privilege of serving God’s Kingdom with he and his lovely wife, Cyle. Shannon is also a blogger and contributer at TheWorshipComunity.Com

On a personal level, I am biased because I love Shannon, Cyle, and their family … so, I’m gonna be excited about this release regardless. I’ve seen YEARS of sweat, prayer, toil, victory, and heartache poured into this project. I was given the privilege of playing B3 organ on Track 3 and gave input into some of the mixes.

On a professional level, I’d highly recommend this project simply because of it’s diversity. Lyrics are Kingdom-minded. Melodies are diverse. Style changes from song-to-song, yet maintains a signature “Saint Lewis” sound.

My favorites?
3. Wandering Heart
4. Quiet Your Heart
5. Fly (lyrics – I love this line, “there’s so much more to be seen from the sky …”)
8. Never Cease to Sing (we did this at one of our Night of Worship events, love the pads and keyboard work of McKendree Augustas on this!)

So … if you’re a little bored with the status quo … with the same, pop-rock guitar sounds, pulsing 8th note bass lines, and predictable chord movements, click the iTunes graphic above or just head over to iTunes and pick this album up today. You’re supporting an incredible artist, worship leader, and family.

Sunday Setlists – Debut of “You Save” at SSCC

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:44:16 +0000

Today is Sunday, June 13, 2010 – and this is our worship service recap from SSCC. I’m posting this along with hundreds of other worship leaders in the “Sunday Setlists” event that happens every week over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Today was a blast because I was able to debut the first song I’ve written in nearly 6 years. It’s called “You Save” and it’s the fruit of my first songwriting collaboration with Mandy Thompson. More on that in a second …

Our walk-in song this morning was “Marvelous Light” … Shannon Lewis has always “owned” that song and done an awesome job leading it.

Opening Set:
“Alive Again” (Matt Maher and Jason Ingram)
“You Save” (Fred McKinnon and Mandy Thompson)

After some announcements, missions video, sermon promo, and challenging word by Pastor David Yarborough, we celebrated Communion. During communion we worshiped with:

“You Gave Your Life Away” (Paul Baloche and Kathryn Scott)
“Be Thou My Vision” (hymn)
“Revelation Song” (Jennie Lee Riddle)

One of the cool additions today was violin, courtesy of Ms. Carol Parks. Below is a video of the new song, “You Save”. Enjoy!

Verse 1:
Darkness, famine, trials, temptations,
Sorrows, anger, lies, frustrations,
Where, o where are You, God?
I feel a million miles away yet I know you are near
Are you listening? Do you even hear?
Where, o where are You, God?

Chorus:
Where o where does my help come from?
I cry out into the night …

Verse 2:
Lusts of the flesh and the greed in my heart
Selfish desires to be set apart
Where, o where are You God?
Have my sins hidden me for all eternity?
Will you rescue? Will you still help me?
Where, o where are You, God?

(Chorus 2x)

Bridge:
Your arm is not too short to save
Your reach goes deeper than the grave
When I’m crying to You
You save! You save!
You save …. You save …

(repeat)

My help comes from the Lord above
Maker of heaven and of earth
You watch over me and run
to save! To save!
To save …. To save …
You save …. You save ….

WHY DON’T THEY ENGAGE IN WORSHIP??

Fred McKinnon — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:26:38 +0000

This is the big question I’ll be discussing at the “AllAboutWorship” retreat in Kansas City this weekend. My breakout session is about corporate participation – why our congregations do (and don’t) engage during our worship services.

What do we (as worship leaders) do that hinder it?
What do we (as worship leaders) to to encourage it?

Whether you are a worship leader, band member, or the worshiper who is in the congregation … your feedback is vital. Over the next 48 hours I’ll be finishing up my outline and I want your feedback.

My preference is for you to post your answer on TheWorshipCommunity.Com in this discussion thread. If you’re not a member of TWC, it only takes a second to sign up. You can also click the blue “Connect with Facebook” button in the top-right corner to join.

Otherwise, leave your remarks right here on the blog … or better yet, leave them in BOTH places!

Pass the word – send this to your praise team, to your church, to your twitter followers, to your facebook friends. And thanks!

Worth Fighting For Sermon Trailer: Composition

Fred McKinnon — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:18:13 +0000

We launched a new (and much-needed) series at SSCC this past week called “Worth Fighting For” – it’s about marriage and family. Our creative team spent some time coming up with a set which includes a way-cool boxing ring on stage and tons of full-sized posters with various families from our church in “boxing robes and gloves” in the building.

With some help from friends, Chris Moncus shot this video at a local gym and Travis Paulding gave it his editing mojo. So we could truly “own” this series and the creative elements, I was asked to compose an original musical soundtrack for the trailer.

So, I present this sermon trailer, featuring one of the founding families of this church (Larry and Beverly Wade) … no, they aren’t fighting each other … they are fighting WITH each other … for marriage … for family.

I tracked this in ProTools with several keyboards, samplers, and groove modules, and tweaked tempos and time-stretching to try and get the big horn motif to “match” the transitions in the video.

You like?

Easter 2010 – St. Simons Community Church

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:10:27 +0000

Oh, what a beautiful day … what a beautiful way .. that HE HAS SAVED ME!

No, we didn’t sing that song today, but my 3rd Easter Sunday as the Worship Pastor at St. Simons Community Church was a great day. We had packed crowds with overflow in both services and Pastor David Yarborough presented the Gospel in a powerful way. I know many lives were given to Jesus Christ today.

One of the problems I face is having TOO MANY wonderful musicians and singers. As a result, it’s impossible to get everyone on the stage for Easter Sunday. Nevertheless, we had an awesome team with some of our faithful volunteers and had a glorious time in worship.

We opened with a song that’s become a bit of a “tradition” for us … with “Shackles”. This is such a groovy tune led by Kim Dixon and Todd Hendrix. It was incredible having Josh Nunn with us on sax this year and Russ Hutto even pulled out his trumpet as we did a long interlude of band jam while people were waiting on the services to begin.

At the top of the hour we had an exciting 60-second countdown video which stirred us in anticipation of the celebration that was happening.

This led directly into “Glory to God Forever”, one of my favorite songs of the last year.

After some brief announcements we had an incredible interview/testimony with PGA Golfer Zach Johnson who won the Masters a few years ago … on Easter Sunday, actually! Zach lives on St. Simons and attends our church and he had an incredible of story of how he’s given his life to Christ.

To kickoff the 2nd set of worship, Russ Hutto played a regal version of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” on trumpet. After he played through the song one time, the vocals and piano joined in with Verse 1. Verses 2 and 3 added full band with a “fanfare” to kickoff a big, broad Verse 4. I asked Russ to play the big “pipe organ” sound on the keys as we went into the final verse, and frankly .. I LOVED IT!

“Mighty to Save” was a must-have for Easter Sunday. This has become an anthem in our church and the people really sing it out with everything they have.

The next moment was carefully rehearsed and came out beautifully. We had a video that perfectly setup the sermon and the background music was Tomlin’s “I Will Rise”. Travis (our Tech Director) stripped the background music and narration away and one of our faithful volunteers created a new voiceover. With the help of the full Ableton Live tracks from InteractiveWorshipLive.Com we accompanied the video with “I Will Rise” and came in after the 2nd Verse … so this inspiring video and narration played throughout the 1st Verse, Chorus, and 2nd Verse, and faded into lyrics as we picked it up. It was wonderful.

Our closing songs were full of live:
“In Christ Alone” (Townend/Ketty) – one of my favorites!
“Christ is Risen” (Matt Maher)

Wow, what an incredible day. Of course, “Shackles” as a walk-out/encore was a given, and we enjoyed seeing lots of people stay in the room to dance, praise, and enjoy the fun and music.

This worship recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” blog event happening at TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week! Check it out and see what others are doing in their worship services!

Happy Easter!

Age-Focused and Preference-Driven

Fred McKinnon — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:20:56 +0000

It’s Spring Break here in Glynn County to I’ve taken a few days off of work so we can be together as a family. We were hanging out on the beach yesterday and I read a great article from LeadershipJournal.Net called “The X Factor“.

“Most of the highly celebrated, experimental worship services launched in the 90′s to reach ‘Gen-X’ are now gone. What have we learned from the rise, decline, and renewal of next generation ministries?” … that’s the headline. It was a great read.

I suppose reading this article and Skye Jethani’s “The Divine Commodity” at the same time is creating a firebox where the slightest spark can ignite the inferno inside of me, that, for a bunch of reasons, sometimes thinks we’re “doing church” all wrong these days.

I’m constantly living in this tension … how to be relevant and attractive to those who need (and yes, even to those who have) Jesus Christ … and how to live the life that Jesus has for us, with authenticity and holiness. How to take relate to this culture without being tainted by it’s filthy influence.

One quote in this article really pulled a verbal “Amen” from me … right out loud, there on the pool deck.

I feel that if we can see church as the people, and not just define church by the worship gathering, a lot would be solved in bridging generations,” Kimball said. “We could focus more on the older mentoring the younger, the older opening their homes and being sages and guides to the younger. Instead we focus so much on getting the twenty-somethings into the main worship gathering. But just sitting in a room for an hour and half looking at the backs of everyone’s heads does not make something intergenerational.

Wow. You see, I have this desire that we all come together. There is a time and place for “age-focused and preference-driven” gatherings, but I don’t think they should become the all-in-all for people. Seems like God has something for us all to learn from one another. But we don’t really accomplish that through our Sunday morning gatherings in most churches. Like the quote above says, we come and look at the back of people’s heads and go home.

This needs to change. How do we go beyond the corporate worship and lecture and become family?

1. I feel that entertainment-driven corporate gatherings are creating weak Christians who constantly focus on what is “in it” for them.
2. I feel that by constantly appealing to “preference” we feed the self-fulfillment monster and isolate those who don’t share the same preference.
3. I think that we miss the building of true community when our church activities revolve around the big events where someone on stage performs for us.

Ouch. There. I said it.

Let the debate begin.

Songs We Sing #sundaysetlists

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:50:53 +0000

Hey Everybody!

Another great day of worship at SSCC yesterday. One of the songs that Russ Hutto has been telling us about is “Say So” by Israel Houghton and Michael Gungor. We introduced it as our walk-in yesterday … complete w/ the full Ableton Live tracks offered by Interactive Worship Live. Since we already had drums, bass, acoustic, piano, and electric guitar, I muted those tracks in Ableton, but we still benefited from the loops, synths, the THREE extra electric guitar tracks and other fillers …

Earlier this week I “tweeted” about my frustrations in scheduling a worship setlist that didn’t “flow” as well as it should simply because we knew people would come to church late. This was one of those weeks. Because we needed to make some major announcements about our upcoming Easter services … specifically, the parking issues … we needed to make sure more people were “in the building”. As a result, I put “Hosanna” (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown) at the top of the hour to give an extra 5-minutes for people to come in … LATE.

I know we shouldn’t schedule to reward and enable late attendance, but in this case – all of those late-comers missing the announcement about parking for Easter would have been a bigger problem.

After announcements we entered the middle “set” … this is where I wish we could’ve had “Hosanna” for a 3-song flow. Instead, we jumped right into “Revelation Song”.

After that, we were thrilled to have a blog/twitter friend, Gary Durbin, share one of his original songs. Gary was in town for Spring Break and knowing he’s a great worship leader and songwriter from Melbourne, FL … I asked him to share a song. He did better that that … he WROTE a song based on the sermon text I gave him only a few days ago. And it was AMAZING! Thanks, Gary!

We closed with “Take My Life” (the Tomlin/Passion version) as a song of dedication and consecration.

Overall it was a great Sunday, though the flow of worship seemed a bit disjointed because of the way I had to break things up. Travis, our Tech Director, helped smooth things over with some great transitional elements via video.

I’m posting my worship recap as a part of the bigger “Sunday Setlists” event that happens over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com every single week. Go check it out!

Instructing Your Congregation

Fred McKinnon — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:05:13 +0000

It happens almost every Sunday. You greet people and hear various comments of how they liked (or disliked) the music in church.

This Sunday, it was at lunch afterwards. This nice couple is standing there waiting on me to finish lunch and they catch me as I’m leaving Shane’s Rib Shack.

“We really love what you’re doing with the music at church …. but ….”

Oh, the power of that word. It puts you on edge … you linger in a state of suspense … “but … what”??

“We’re from a good ole’ Baptist background, and our Music Minister would always tell us when to sing. So, we’re not quite sure when we’re supposed to sing”.

Setup:

On two of the songs we did at SSCC that morning, the opening verse was led by only one of the vocalists on the stage. Not so much because I wanted them to have a “solo” to “showcase their talent” … I just felt it was a nice arrangement and it was soothing to hear the one voice.

But to some folks in our congregation … they are wondering … “should I be singing”.

I LOVE THIS KIND OF FEEDBACK from our congregation. It’s so eye-opening.

Discussion:

So, as Worship Leaders, we have to walk the line between instructing our congregation, and becoming an over-talkative cheerleader or drill sergeant.

Let’s kick off a conversation today … how do you instruct your congregation?

Worship Recap for Sunday March 7, 2010 #sundaysetlists

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:03:33 +0000

Hey Hey Hey,

Just finished a great nap on a beautiful Spring day here on St. Simons Island, GA. This day started out with a chilly 39 but has warmed up to a near 70-degree day. Jon Michael (my oldest, the 9-year old) finally got the bike he’s been holding out for so I’ll make this short as a family bike ride awaits me!

The place? St. Simons Community Church

The people? Some of the best on the planet. Great team today.

The songs? A great set of old and new:

Walk In: “Washed by the Water” (NeedtoBreathe)
*love, love, love this song. David Dantzler played acoustic and led this song today and he always nails it.

Opening Praise: “See His Love” (Tim Hughes version)
*we’ve been doing this song frequently for years and it just stays in rotation. Love it. My wife loves it. That makes it say in rotation for a LONG TIME.

Worship Set:
“Hosanna” (Hillsong) – led by one of our teenagers, Liza Odachowski.
“Psalm 63″ – written and led by my friend Russ Hutto. You gotta check out this song, it’s so singable and the people grab it immediately.
“Step by Step” – flows perfectly from Psalm 63, a great old chorus from the Rich Mullins days.

Closing Song:
“How Deep the Father’s Love” (Stuart Townend)
*what a rich song. Simple piano/vocal arrangement led by Todd, with the band building in on the final verse.

David’s sermon was hilarious. I am still laughing about his fast-food examples and how his Dad messed him up by saying he was “outside playing”. You’ll have to catch it on the podcast.

That’s a wrap. I’m sharing this along with other worshipers all over the globe as part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” blog/twitter fest over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com – so visit there and see all of the things other worship leaders are doing … and checkout the most recent “tweets” below of other folks sharing about their services by using the “#sundaysetlists” hashtag (code) on their tweets!

#sundaysetlists

A Serious Contract with our Associate Tech Director

Fred McKinnon — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:03:26 +0000

Our Associate Tech Director, Chris Moncus … he’s the guy who makes our bulletin, e-bulletin, and prints master CDs for me to make the podcast, etc. More times than not, I go back to him the week after asking for him to send me all of that stuff. Then, he usually forwards it to me from the “Sent Mail” folder where he ALREADY DID THAT.

So, today I sent him this contract.

I do hereby confirm receipt of:
* Feb 28 bulletin
* Feb 28 master CD

If I should email you asking for these again next week, you hereby have the irrevocable right thereto by which you may call me a slacking idiot with no further retribution, cause, or consequence from said parties hereto.

Signed:
Fred McKinnon

What Did We Sing? #sundaysetlists

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:58:35 +0000

It was a long weekend of worship at SSCC this weekend. First I led a team from various churches on Friday and Saturday for a women’s conference with Lisa Harper. She is an incredible speaker and we had a wonderful time worshiping with all those ladies!

Today was a great day for our “Sunday” services as well. Here’s a recap of the songs we did.

Walk In: “Live Again” (Tim Haynes)
*this is a bluesy song written by one of our own, and was a ton of fun to play and sing

Opening Set:
“Your Grace is Enough”
“No Other Name”

Middle Set:
“Take My Life” (Third Day version)
“In Christ Alone”
“Christ In Me”

*all of the songs today fit perfectly with our study of Colossians, the preeminence of Christ, and His grace in our lives.

Closer:
“Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone”

This is the musical portion of how we worshiped. Want to see what other churches and leaders were doing? Go checkout all the other recaps in the “Sunday Setlists” post at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

A Worship Recap for St. Simons Community Church #sundaysetlists

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:51:21 +0000

Today we’ve kicked off a new, 8-week series called “Deep Roots” at SSCC. I’m excited to get into a deep teaching where we break down God’s Word, verse by verse.

Part of the creative discussions we’ve had is how we could incorporate some older creeds and songs. Today we proclaimed “The Apostles Creed” together. Now you may be in a church where this is done every Sunday but that’s not normal for us. In my nearly 3-years of serving on staff as the Worship Pastor, we’ve never recited it.

Here’s how the flow of our worship service went today:

Walk In Song:
“Washed by the Water” (Needtobreathe)
Comments: I’ve always loved this song and one of our guitarists/vocalists, David Dantzler, nails it. It was our first time and people really got into it.

Opening Song:
“Glorious One” (Steve Fee)

After a short announcement video, I took about 4-5 minutes to discuss the history and heritage of the Apostles Creed. I wanted to make this come alive so that it wasn’t some creed we said out loud that meant nothing. I tried my best to put this creed into context. It seemed like people were connecting with it and when we proclaimed it together, it was if I were saying it for the first time.

From there, I transitioned with the team directly into the traditional hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy” in the Key of C.
This made for a smooth transition from “old” to “new” with “Revelation Song” (Gateway Version) in C.
(yeah, I know, some of you saying “that’s not new!” … haha, indeed it’s a few years old now, but still a great song for our congregation!)

After Pastor David’s sermon, we closed by reinforcing what the Book of Colossians was stating … by singing “Center” (Charlie Hall), stating how Christ is the center of it all.

That’s a recap of our services. I’m sharing this in cooperation with the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival hosted over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com, where you can see our recap along with many others! Go check’em out!

A Profound Truth

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:33:27 +0000

I’m 39 years old. I will hit 40 in November.
I’ve been involved in church music since I was a kid.
I’ve been on a praise team since I was in High School.
I’ve been a worship leader (either as a volunteer or as paid staff) since the early 90′s.
I’ve been on church staff since 1995. Yep, that’s 15 years.

I am discovering a profound truth about Worship/Music Ministry.

Picking songs and leading music is a very small part of what this job is really about. This job … this ministry … it’s really about:
* leading people
* bridging gaps
* listening and learning
* being a peacemaker
* navigating through personalities and expectations
* managing volunteers
* building relationships

Playing the music and leading the singing on Sunday?

That is by far, the EASIEST PART of this job!

Night of Worship – TONIGHT

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:04:02 +0000

Hey Gang,

Join us tonight for a “Night of Worship” at St. Simons Community Church at 6:00 PM EST.

If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come and worship with us. If you’re out of town, consider joining us “live” online at:
www.sscclive.com

Let’s join together in person and across the internet for a glorious time of worship and praise!

#sundaysetlists Worship Review for SSCC, Sunday Jan 24

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:36:55 +0000

This worship recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival, now hosted at TheWorshipCommunity.Com. Visit and see the worship service recaps from hundreds of other churches, worship leaders, and worshipers!

Today was what I call a “float” day at church for me. I scheduled myself off the stage and free of any leadership responsibilities. I spent my time doing a couple of things:

1. Fighting LiveStream: we couldn’t broadcast live today for anything. It kept crashing, freezing, and giving us all sorts of problems. Drove us nuts.

2. “Floating” to different environments. I slipped in and out of both services in our main auditorium. I caught some worship in Rush Hour (Middle School service) and in KidJam (Elementary Students). It was great to see so many styles of worship, volunteers, and leaders who were engaging with the various age groups.

In our main auditorium, the worship team did a fantastic job. They did:

Walk In: We Shall Wear A Crown (Gospel, it rocked)
Opening: Hosanna (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown)

Middle Set:
Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Hymn)
How Great is our God

Special: The Midnight Call … and Todd and Larry showed their singing skills off, wow, they were awesome.

Closing Worship:
You Have Made Me Glad (I Will Bless the Lord at All Times)
Sing to the King

I’m preparing for a big night of worship next week, and hope you’ll tune in with us next Sunday night at SSCCLive.Com, assuming we can get LiveStream to cooperate.

For the Kingdom,

Fred

Praying, Fasting, Worshiping

Fred McKinnon — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:16:09 +0000

Howdy Folks,

I’m headed out for a 3-day spiritual retreat. I’m joining a group of “mighty men” for 3 days of prayer, fasting, and worship. With exception of the last two years, I’ve been able to unplug and pull away in mid-January for the last 12 years.

This retreat is an incredible time. Each person who attends will write their name on a big dry erase board and write down what they need to hear from God about. Their visions, trials, struggles, dreams, and needs. We intercede over that the entire time. At some point, each person will sit down in “the prayer chair” where all of us will gather around for focused prayer and intercession.

Our fearless leader moved away and the retreat didn’t happen last year so I decided to try and pick up the baton and keep it going. I’m proud to be joined by some of my worshiping friends here like Shannon Lewis and Russ Hutto. I’m hopeful that my pastor and some of our pastoral staff will join us as well.

Would you pray for me? Pray for:

* ability to hear God’s voice clearly.
* confidence to do what He instructs
* God’s anointing and discernment as I bring these men together
* the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to flow through me, so that I can be an encouragement to those who attend
* fresh vision and insight

Thanks a ton. I’ll be back later this week. Until then, have fun and be blessed!

For the Kingdom,
Fred

CHURCH is a place where I _______ (fill in the blank)

Fred McKinnon — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:23:09 +0000

Christians and Non-Christians welcome. Please tweet this, re-tweet this, and share on Facebook. CHURCH is a place where I __________________________ (fill in the blank – leave your comments below) Related posts:Introducing J-Blank, All-Star Youth Pastor Vocalist J-Blank All-Star, continued … Who Needs Church?

From the Word: Clapping and Shouting?

Fred McKinnon — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:20:36 +0000

Psalm 47

1 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
(Psalm 47: 1-2, ESV, YouVersion.Com)

It would seem that many Christians would think that this passage didn’t exist. Many of our corporate church gatherings would never have place for “clapping” and “shouting” to God. As another contributor over at YouVersion already posted, “they feel it’s not dignified”. Of course, I love King David’s response to the criticism he received for praising God … “I’ll be even more undignified than this”.

We don’t clap and shout just to do it. This is a response. A response to the greatness of God. To the bigness of a Great Big God, as the Psalmist shows us in verse 2.

You don’t have to be in a Charismatic church to experience this form of praise. Go outside in the woods and do it yourself. Turn up the radio or CD and go for it in the car on your morning commute … it’s not like the people going 60 mph behind you care. Maybe you could have a special service of praise and worship where you take 3 minutes to read this passage and comment on it and find a way to encourage everyone to try it out!

It may be awkward at first, but go for it and find the freedom in this form of praise. God is good, all the time!

Discussion:
Do you clapping and shouting as outward signs of praise in your corporate gatherings? Have you experienced this form of praise to God in your own personal life? How do you feel about it? Let’s hear from you! Click below to comment.

North Point Ministries and EMI Distribution Sign Deal

Fred McKinnon — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:34:06 +0000

Interesting press release I got today … congrats North Point and congrats EMI:
EMI CMG DISTRIBUTION AND ANDY STANLEY’S NORTH POINT COMMUNITY CHURCH ENTER LONG-TERM DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – December 15, 2009 – EMI CMG Distribution and North Point Community Church, the Alpharetta (Atlanta), Georgia-based church led by Andy Stanley, have agreed to a long-term distribution agreement for a new line of products produced by North Point Ministries and its newly launched record label, North Point Music.

The agreement calls for EMI CMG to handle distribution rights worldwide to all retail channels for recorded music products, as well as for select DVDs starting with four products releasing today.

There will be three projects in a new line entitled “The North Point Series Featuring Andy Stanley,” with each product comprised of a DVD and CD. Additionally, EMI CMG will distribute the all new worship CD North Point Live: Awake.

“With Andy Stanley at the helm and several well-known and highly respected songwriters and worship leaders involved in their ministry, North Point is one of the most influential churches and ministries in the U.S. We are honored to partner with them in making their music and ministry available worldwide,” said Greg Bays, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for EMI CMG Distribution.

“We are excited to have EMI CMG partner with us as we look to use the unique tools of music and video to share the Gospel throughout the world,” said Rick Holliday, North Point’s Executive Director of Ministry Services. “EMI CMG has a distinguished track record of professionalism, integrity and success in the marketing and distribution of Christian music products and we are looking forward to the promising opportunity that lies ahead to work with EMI CMG’s experienced sales, marketing and distribution team.”

North Point currently averages nearly 25,000 people in attendance between its three campuses in the Atlanta area each week, making it the third-largest church in the U.S. Music is integral, not only to the church’s weekly worship, but as a resource for outreach.

The first music product to be released by EMI CMG and North Point Music is North Point Live: Awake, a collection of 14 songs recorded at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta (Atlanta), Georgia. Six talented recording artists lend their voices to Awake, all of whom lead worship at one or more of North Point’s three campuses in metro Atlanta: Steve Fee, Todd Fields, Eddie Kirkland, Seth Condrey, Ryan Stuart and Cori Moon. Dove Award-winning producer Nathan Nockels (Passion, Christy Nockels, Tim Hughes) served as producer for Awake. Songs from the project include a new version of the timeless and inspiring hymn “It Is Well” and soon-to-be standards such as “Glory To God Forever” and “Hands of the Healer.”

Known as one of the most effective communicators in the Church today, Stanley readily shares what he has learned in more than two decades of ministry, including as founder and senior pastor of North Point Community Church. He is the headliner for the annual East and West Coast Catalyst conferences, where he speaks to crowds of more than 20,000 young leaders throughout the country. Moreover, Stanley has authored and co-authored more than 20 titles, giving him robust credentials for hosting a new video teaching series.

“Why Worry” is a timeless question that Andy Stanley explores in the first DVD of “The North Point Series Featuring Andy Stanley.” Stanley investigates one of the Bible’s Old Testament stories in which the main character is challenged with a single question that brought a new and needed perspective to his worries. Then, by exploring what Jesus has to say about worry — where worry comes from; why it’s so difficult to overcome, and how to conquer it, Stanley guides viewers to answers which may be the key to overcoming worry in our own lives.

“God & Country” is a provocative DVD that looks at the conflicts that have driven a deep divide in the U.S. While politicians frame the debate as rich vs. poor, big business vs. the middle class, or Republican vs. Democrat, another conflict reflects a much deeper divide in American culture, a conflict that, if resolved, could pave the way for our nation to come together and successfully address the issues that fill the airwaves.

“He’s Still Got the Whole World in His Hands” helps to answer some of life’s most difficult questions — How do we remain hopeful in a world that seems to be hopelessly broken; how do we continue to trust a God that seems to be conspicuously absent and how do we maintain peace when the world around us is spinning out of control? The Bible is filled with stories of men and women who asked similar questions and Stanley uses these stories to be reminded of God’s faithfulness throughout history and in our own lives.

Each of the three DVDs in the “The North Point Series Featuring Andy Stanley” also includes a bonus audio CD featuring select songs from North Point worship leaders and a bonus digital copy of Stanley’s talks included for use on iPod, iPhone, or other personal media device.

ABOUT EMI CMG DISTRIBUTION (www.emicmgdistribution.com):
Billboard Magazine’s annual Top Christian Music Distributor since 1995, EMI CMG Distribution was founded in 1994 to serve as the main distribution outlet for EMI CMG’s owned and distributed labels to the US Christian and general retail marketplace, and the international Christian marketplace. In addition to distributing EMI Christian Music Group’s fully-owned labels, which include Sparrow, ForeFront, and Credential imprints, as well as EMI Gospel and Worship Together, EMI CMG Distribution has exclusive distribution agreements with Tooth & Nail/BEC, Creative Trust Media, EE-Taow Records, Gaither Music Group, Green Hill Productions, Hal Leonard, Inpop, Just Me Music, Kingsway Music, Madacy Entertainment, Spring Hill Music Group, Troubadour for the Lord, Universal Music Group, VSR Music Group, Anchor Bay Entertainment/Starz, Cloud 9 Games, First Look Studios, GT Media, Guardian Studios/Bananas, Kelly’s Filmworks, Pure Flix Entertainment, Vivendi Visual Entertainment and Third Day Games. EMI CMG Distribution is a division of EMI Christian Music Group, a unit of EMI Music (www.emi.com), one of the world’s leading music companies.